I have created an excel addin using yeoman generator and i would like to distribute this addin as a downloadable pkg/exe.
I came across few ways to publish and deploy office addin (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/publish/publish)
but is there any other ways to share and publish my addin to users.
The only method I know of that's not listed in the article you linked to is described in this blog post: https://theofficecontext.com/2020/03/23/web-add-in-side-loader-tool/.
Related
Visual studio 19 allows to build an Excel web addin but, apparently, not custom function
Yeoman office provides vscode projects for both, separately, but not for the combination of the two.
How is it possible to build a combination of a web addin project combined and a custom function ?
(typescript would be prefered)
In a second thought, a workaround could be to build two complements one for the Excel addin and the other for the custom functions. It's not totaly user friendly but should make it, if it's possible to use those two complement at the same time
Q1. Are there any method to distribute excel office add-in(w/ office.js) in privately?
(Will office.js add-in also be distributed like VSTO's .exe OR .xla/.xlam macro files with password?)
Q2. If I run office add-in server(node.js) on my on-premise server, What will have to be distributed to the end-users?
(I want to hide the core source logic unlike VBA macro.)
I am now developing an excel office add-in. But there seems to be some limitation to deploy to the end-users in my company.(We are now testing environment for pilot, and using office 365 but it is restricted by IT's policy)
When I refer to the official documentation below, the docs says that the way to deploy add-in in privately are Microsoft 365 admin center OR SharePoint catalog.(AppSource is publicly for everyone.)
refer. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/publish/publish
However, it seems that it have to use Microsoft's services or components like SharePoint or admin center. I don't want to use these items because I want to flexibly cope with various environments.
I have also read the article as below.
refer. How to distribute private office add-ins?
But the reply thread seems that the writer couldn't get the appropriate answer what I also want to know.
I want to know the other ways to distribute excel office add-in(w/ office.js) without unveiling my core source logic and what is the minimum materials I have to provide to the end-users(i.g. manifest or something).
Typically, as you have already know, you need to host the add-in's source code on the web server anywhere. The manifest file just refers to the place where the sources are stored. And the single file which should be provided to be able to side-load add-ins locally is the manifest file. Everything else is hosted under your control.
Due to the nature of the web technology you can't hide the source code from users. The add-in acts like a regular web page. The best what you could do is to obfuscate your code.
Is there an excel addin available right now to connect to AML model API(ACI)? I could see below solution for classic studio but not for AML.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/studio/excel-add-in-for-web-services#steps-to-add-a-new-web-service
Currently this feature is not available i.e.,an excel addin not available right now, however you can easily connect via a VB macro. You can open a feature request here.
Please follow the below example.
https://github.com/retkowsky/AzureML_Excel
I'm playing with Excel Add-ins, and I'm not a specialist, so having read the documentation, I still find it complicated to publish and install it.
Basically, all I did was the very basic Excel Add-in described in the documentation and now I'm trying to figure out how to install it in Excel.
I see everywhere that this is vrey simple, all you have to do is to upload the XML manisfest file, etc. but using Visual Studio, I chose publish via FTP and I get 3 folders in my website:
Content
Functions
Scripts
These are full of js scripts, but I don't see the manifest file nor the home.css, Home.js and Home.html
Isn't it possible to just upload the files with Filezilla to a folder? Which files?
If so, then how do I install the addin in Excel?
Thank you so much for helping!
The manifest goes to a different place than the files in the web application part of the add-in. Please see this article and the links in it for the details of how to publish the web application and deploy the manifest: Deploy and Publish your Office Add-in.
UPDATE 1/10/19:
Some additional information in light of the OP's comments:
Please start with this article: Office Add-ins to get an overview. You will see that there are two main parts to an Office Web Add-in: (1) The manifest and (2) a web application.
The manifest can be sideloaded or deployed using several methods. For more information on publishing options, see this node of the documentation: Publish.
The web application can be published/hosted using any method or platform that you want. We don't give instructions for most methods because this information is already available on the web. However, this article, Host an Office Add-in on Microsoft Azure, explains how to do it on Azure. I recommend that you try that method of hosting first. Note that in step 6, you edit the manifest to point to the URL of your web app. When you feel familiar with the distinction between hosting the web app and deploying the manifest, you can try an alternate method of hosting the web app. No matter which method you choose, you will edit the manifest in the same way.
I'm currently developing a tool using the Office javascript API. However, I would like to provide an own Excel function (something like =SUM(A1:A5)), which is based on code in C#.
Is there any way to avoid shipping two individual plug-ins from the users point of view? Can I combine both technologies to one plug-in?
If you are only targeting the desktop version of Excel then you can create a VSTO add-in instead of a JavaScript-based add-in. Within this adding you can include the code for your custom functions in the VSTO project and make sure they are correctly registered. One solution could be to create your own MSI-based installer, e.g. using Windows Installer XML (WIX) or Nullsoft's NSIS tool.
With this "classic" VSTO add-in technology you won't be able to target Excel on Mac, on mobile platforms or Excel Online in the browser though.
Yes there is also an alternative solution to creating a desktop C# add-in with VSTO or ExcelDNA as suggested by Dirk.
A javascript web add-in is just a web page with a library : office.js filling the gap between your logic and the office host application.
Why not passing the input to an API written in C# (this can be or not the same server serving the add-in) that will do the calculation ? The javascript will be there only to pass data and set the calculation results in spreadsheet.
I use ILMerge to combine my dlls. You can add it as a post build command so that they are merged on successful build.